(by Ameli Berksman)

Problem of the security of customers’ credit card data seems to grow as the incident when hackers obtained the details of 47,000 customers of ItsDeductible took place.

Some customers objected that their data had been stored for two years from the moment they’d bought software from the firm as the data was password-protected.

American Express strongly advises its merchants to keep purchase-related data for 24 months in case a charge is disputed, provided that encryption and other security are used as no law regulate information storage in the private sector.

Small companies are recommended to train their employees to make sure that checks, credit and debit cards presented in payment are genuine and that the customer is the true account holder in the process of safeguarding data on file.